Charlottesville Tomorrow launched a new website Friday, July 20th. If you made a comment on a recent story here (our old TypePad blog), it has been moved to the same article on the new site. Please update all of your links to Charlottesville Tomorrow's home page to www.cvilletomorrow.org Continue reading

The Charlottesville City Council held a work session Thursday to discuss changes to the process by which nonprofit social service agencies are funded. “I hope we establish clear, open procedures for the use of council priority funds for ‘pilot’ programs and initiatives,” City Councilor Kathy Galvin said. Continue reading

Less than a week away from a major public hearing on water treatment and chloramines, the Albemarle County Service Authority heard from citizens on Thursday both for and against the proposal. Now at least one of its members has come to the conclusion that avoiding chloramines may help maintain public confidence in the water supply. Continue reading

RICHMOND — The Commonwealth Transportation Board has approved the transfer of $9.7 million in additional funds for Hillsdale Drive Extended. That fully funds the current $13.8 million cost estimate for the Charlottesville road and completes a series of promises made by top Virginia officials in exchange for local support of the Western Bypass of U.S. 29. Continue reading

A new commercial development along U.S. 29 received a favorable recommendation from the Albemarle Planning Commission at its meeting Tuesday. Albrecht Place will consist of a 48,000-square-foot commercial building and 183-space parking lot on about 3.4 currently wooded acres behind the Shoppers World shopping center and next to the Berkley neighborhood. Continue reading

State and local environmental protection advocates gathered in Darden Towe Park on Wednesday to warn about federal legislation that they said poses a clear and present danger to the Shenandoah National Park and other wilderness lands in Virginia. Activists said unless the bills pending in Congress are stopped, wilderness areas in Virginia will be threatened by road building, development and resource extraction. Continue reading

The Charlottesville City Council has upheld a determination by city staff that the developers of Stonefield in Albemarle County violated an erosion control permit by opening up a new stormwater pipe before certain conditions were met. “I think staff’s determination is appropriate and that they have not followed through the plan and conditions of the permit,” Mayor Satyendra Huja said. Continue reading

For close to a year the Charlottesville Department of Parks and Recreation has been working to create a plan for what the eastern side of McIntire Park will look like following the completion of the Meadow Creek Parkway. The plan Charlottesville City Council viewed July 16 featured an improved Dogwood Vietnam Memorial and a relocated skate park. In addition, it moved the wading pool from its current location and added a soccer field. Continue reading

Charlottesville’s City Council voted 3-2 Monday to deny a request to rezone a lot in the Rose Hill neighborhood out of a concern that the resulting development would be out of character with the area. The developer, Rosanna Danna LLC, requested a zoning change on the properties in order to build a six-unit apartment complex on a site zoned for single-family housing. Continue reading

At Monday’s Albemarle County Architectural Review Board meeting, members approved the design for a Fresh Market specialty grocery store that will occupy the old Circuit City building in the Albemarle Square shopping center on U.S. 29. The Fresh Market will feature outdoor seating and a design that mimics a farmer’s market. Board members said they were pleased with the developer’s latest plans to add another set of windows to the front of the building. Continue reading

Soundboard 7-13-2012 - Charlottesville's news straight from the source Continue reading

By Courtney Beale Charlottesville Tomorrow Sunday, July 15, 2012 In the aftermath of a well-attended symposium in June on alternatives for public drinking water treatment, area officials are preparing to hold a joint meeting to receive public comment from the Charlottesville-Albemarle community. Charlottesville City Councilor Kathy Galvin The public hearing is being held July 25 in response to concerns about one of the water treatment approaches, the use of chloramines. Since the public became aware of the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority’s March 2011 decision to use chloramines, some concerned residents have advocated for alternatives like carbon filtration. Now some of the elected officials who will make the final decision say they are looking forward to the public feedback and reaching consensus on changes that must be made to comply with federal mandates. Balancing public safety with increasing prices is on the minds of local representatives. “You can say no... Continue reading

Meet your government: Summer Frederick, Project Manager, Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission Continue reading

On the grounds of Albemarle High School, a small metal structure sits sniffing the air for pollutants and recording what it finds. Installed in 2008, the Ambient Air Monitoring System has been measuring the amount of ozone and PM2.5, the term for fine solid and liquid particulates 2.5 micrometers and smaller, in Albemarle County. Continue reading

Two organizations opposed to the Western Bypass of U.S. 29 in Albemarle County have produced a three-minute video to encourage citizens to consider alternatives to the 6.2-mile, four-lane highway. “We put this video together to highlight better approaches to solving traffic problems on U.S. 29,” said Morgan Butler of the Southern Environmental Law Center on Thursday. “The community itself has developed an approach that is far less damaging than the bypass; it’s more cost-effective, and it provides benefits that the bypass simply does not.” Continue reading

Facing the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, the developers of Stonefield had simply hoped to get an extension on the deadline to plant vegetation. However, the mixed-use development got more scrutiny Wednesday on the water below ground level than the plants above. The board took the opportunity to discuss the developer’s alleged violation of a Charlottesville-issued erosion and sedimentation permit. The county’s water protection ordinance requires developers to plant vegetation on graded property within a specific timeframe and Edens has been unable to meet deadlines because of various delays. Continue reading

A lawyer representing the Seminole Square Shopping Center told the Charlottesville Planning Commission Tuesday that the construction of one of the region’s top transportation priorities may not proceed as planned if the stormwater management plan for the Shops at Stonefield are not amended. “It is likely that Hillsdale Drive will not be built if this thing goes forth,” said Frederick W. Payne, representing the Great Eastern Management Company, the owner of Seminole Square. Continue reading

The mood was celebratory as local officials gathered to witness the dedication ceremony for the newly improved Moores Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The facility treats wastewater for all of the city of Charlottesville and for Albemarle County’s urban areas, including Crozet. The event marked the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority’s completion of the first major improvement there since the mid 1980s. Continue reading

The James River Green Building Council welcomed Ann B. Jurczyk, the Virginia outreach and advocacy manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, to Charlottesville on Tuesday to speak about pollution reduction in the Chesapeake Bay. Jurczyk described ways to help the area meet its goals to improve the health of the bay under what is known as Phase 2 of the Watershed Implementation Plan. Continue reading

One of the largest commercial developments ever built in Albemarle County appears to be in violation of a land disturbance permit issued by the city of Charlottesville. Stonefield is located in Albemarle County, but all of the rain that falls upon the 65-acre site drains downstream into Meadow Creek through the city of Charlottesville. Continue reading

Soundboard 7-6-2012 - Charlottesville's news straight from the source Continue reading

By Sean Tubbs Charlottesville Tomorrow Friday, July 6, 2012 The Charlottesville City Council took up an important question at a work session on Thursday — what can local government do to encourage more employment to lift more people out of poverty? The Orange Dot project was named after the color code for regions of the city that have low median incomes. (Source: Orange Dot project) “It requires a community to foster the infrastructure needed for job creation,” said Ridge Schuyler, the co-author of a 2011 study called the Orange Dot Project which reported that nearly one-third of Charlottesville households do not earn enough to make ends meet. Charlottesville has an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent, but City Manager Maurice Jones said the city is committed to address the chronically unemployed and underemployed. “We believe that tonight’s work session is an important step forward as we continue to address concerns about... Continue reading

A new type of adaptive traffic signal technology is being used in the Pantops area of U.S. 250 to relieve traffic congestion. While other parts of the community have intelligent traffic signals, the Pantops system goes beyond timing plans and adds scanning of side-street traffic needs. The Virginia Department of Transportation installed InSync signal controllers last fall to improve the flow of traffic following the move of Martha Jefferson Hospital to its new home on Pantops. Continue reading

When the Western Bypass of U.S. 29 is completed as early as July 2016, drivers heading north around Charlottesville will be welcomed by a new traffic signal. After the intersection with Leonard Sandridge Road, drivers will have a 6.2-mile, signal-free journey before being deposited back on U.S. 29 near Hollymead Town Center in Albemarle’s northern growth area. Continue reading